Chimp Life

I’ve been working, assembling all the parts, and then I will unite them. That’s the best part. Watching them become the unique and tenderly rendered creatures they are meant to be.

Each chimp I’ve made demands to be his own self. It’s amazing.

I am not a machine and, that being the case, they are full of quirky characteristics. I’ve pulled them from my imagination into 3-D.

Sometimes I need to find a better way to make a particular part. there have been many tweeks and adjustments as I labor.

While wrestling with a chimp thigh last week I swore (literally) that there must be a better method. I needed longer needles. I took a cooling-off break and went around the corner to JoAnn’s to find them.

Doll Needles!! They rock. They can be stuck into one side of a fat little thigh and come out the other side easily, smoothly. This saves me a whole lot of wasted effort and pains in the wrist.

In this photo you can see the tops of the longest needles shining in the light. I love them.

If your grandfathers and great-grandfathers were born in the time of handcrafting — carpentry, cabinet making, motor repair, tool and die — you know that a person has to have the right tool for the job.

Doll needles were made to enable me to do my chimp making. Isn’t that great?

I have a deep appreciation and respect for tools. I bet chimps do, too.

The stick down the ant hole works very well. The chimp sticks it in. The ants crawl up. The chimp pulls it out and licks the ants off. Yumm. Protein Popsicle.

Put “chimp tools” into Google. You’ll be amazed.

I’m not sure how many chimps I can house. They’ll be occupying all the chairs, the couches, the stools.

When we try to get a spot in front of the computer we’ll have to wait until the chimp leaves.

They are very curious.

If only I could train them to do research.

I could line them up in the back seat of the car. Making sure they are safety belted, I can cruise town with chimp quads. We will blow minds.